For one thing, we have a lot more "do it yourself" meals when Hubby isn't here. When the whole family is under one roof, we almost always sit down to dinner together. When Hubby is out of town I have a lot more running around to do with taking up his transportation facility with the kids to their different activities. This term, #1 comes up short. #2 & #3 have CAP on Monday night, so it is no problem for me to taxi them to and from that. #1 has his Youth Corps activity usually on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and those are the nights I have school. Since I haven't mastered the act of being in two places at one time yet, #1 is left to try and bum a ride from other folks in the activity in order to get to the meetings. Sometimes he can, sometimes not.
Fortunately for #1, he does not have a meeting this evening. That is at least one that he won't miss! He doesn't see it that way of course.
The Youth Corps is a youth group through the YMCA. They have fund raising activities through the winter and put that money into local resources for kids, and during the summer they do community service in the area. He originally got into this with the community service he had to do last summer. He enjoyed it so much that he joined the volunteer Youth Corps when his hours were up. During the summer they help senior or disabled citizens with home and yard care, they work with a program similar to Habitat for Humanity (only in a refurb capacity rather than a "built from scratch" capacity). They also pick fruit and veggies at a local orchard. A percent of the crops go to the Youth Corps to sell at our local Farmers Market and help them continue to raise funds for their projects. #1 absolutely LOVES the program, so much so that I'm urging him to see what type of education he would need in order to get into a director type of position for this type of group when he is an adult.
OK, I've taken enough of a break from my homework. Back to the books!